[lug] domain registrat recommendations

[dio2002 at indra.com]

i unfortunately use godaddy because that's who started with and don't 
feel like (ashamed to admit it) switching at the moment.

sure, for basic web registration probably no better or worse than the 
rest of them.  but overall, i think they're a sleezeball operation that 
does anything in its power to try to confuse consumers and make things 
more difficult than they have to be in the name of the almighty dollar.
think web site structuring and promotion, email promotions, a la carte 
add ons for every little option.  the average domain buyer doesn't 
understand this stuff and in the end buys more than they need.  i 
imagine that's probably no different than the competition but i find it 
particularly annoying.

they tried to rip me off by not giving me the discount promised after 
choosing their myriad of competing promiton options  / emails on my last 
renewal, partly because their domain reorder forms are another 
convoluted piece of crap.  If i hadn't caught it, it would have gone 
unnoticed.  If i hadn't followed up with the dude who promised to refund 
the money, it would never have been refunded and vanished into a black 
hole.  I imagine if i got bit by that one, a lot of people got bit by it 
and never noticed as it was an error in their web app.

for a company that rakes in the amount of dinero that godaddy does, they 
have not invested one dolare back into their login inteface / control 
panel.  the most convoluted thing i've ever experienced. i'm sure some 
may disagree who use them.  you may not recognize it or have to deal 
with what i'm talking about unless you start registering more than a 
couple of domains and then try to manage and renew them online 
periodically throughout the year.  if you have one or two domains, 
probably no big deal.

finally.  if you let a domain expire for whatever reason and decide you 
want it back.  if it goes back into the free pool and is still 
available, the guy off the street can buy it at face value ($9.99). 
however, godaddy will charge you the previous owner something like $99 
to get it back again.  they were trying to feed me some garbage that 
it's not their rule but ICANN's or something.  if that is indeed true, 
it's a load of crap.   i don't see the difference between the previous 
owner or a new person off the street buying the domain.  the price 
should be the same once it goes back into the pool.

the one thing godaddy actually does right is send you reminders (plenty 
of them) and allow you to auto renew so you don't let domains expire.

i perused the nodaddy.com forums and wasn't surprised to see former 
employees confirmed most everything i've said above.

i will look at some of the other registrar recommendations next go round.


> Anyone have a recommendation for a regsitrar they work with, are happy
> with, and won't end up selling my info or cause me all kinds of
> administrative headaches dealing with junk mail?
>